This script will allow you to select one or more layers and create a solid, choose the color and place it directly below the footage layer and it will trim the in and out points of the new solid to match the footage duration.

Learn some fun techniques to get interesting animation by playing with the pivot points of layers and nulls objects

Using Trapcode Particular and a Beveled stroke created with Write-On, Harry J. Frank created this pretty, pretty flower.

Motion designer Harry Frank shows how to breath new life or make a retro look with standard After Effects Lens Flare by using Shape Layers and Trapcode Shine.

This is a fairly simple technique often done poorly. The trick to making the 3D extrusion look as good as possible is in the way you use a custom shape layer and the way you assign textures to the extrusion.

Learn how to create volumetric lights without using external plugins. Enhance the “look and feel” of your projects by lightening them a bit.

Here is a project file that adds an anamorphic stripe and star around the standard AE lens flare.

If you want an abrupt change in value, but not on every frame, you could use this expression.

Here are two presets knocking out black OR white from a layer based on the luminance to set it as transparent/alpha.

In this video tutorial, Eran Stern reveals the first text trick in his series and shows how to design an audio waves animation with the After Effects Text Tool.